1. Customer service in a
nonprofit organisation
Click to edit Master subtitle style
2. What does
Connecting Up do?
Helps nonprofits around Australia to be more
effective
Provides programs, services, events and
resources to help nonprofits
Rosalie Day | Cert IV FLM
3. What is a nonprofit?
A non-profit organisation is one that is not
operating for the profit or gain of its individual
members.
Rosalie Day | Cert IV FLM
4. Why do we help nonprofits?
Non-profits exist to meet a particular social need
or benefit. Many rely on government funding
and donations. Public funds are used
effectively and actually result in benefit to the
community.
Rosalie Day | Cert IV FLM
5. And … nonprofits are important
There may be up to 600 000 in Australia
They account for about 4% of GDP
They employ 8% of the workforce
They engage over 4m volunteers
They contribute to community well-being
6. What is a customer?
A party that receives or
consumes products (goods
or services) and has the
ability to choose between
different products and
suppliers.
www.businessdictionary.com/definition/customer.ht
ml
The recipient of a good,
service, product, or idea,
obtained from a seller,
vendor, or supplier for a
monetary or other valuable
consideration.
7. Who are our customers?
All nonprofit and charity organisations in
Australia
Rosalie Day | Cert IV FLM
8. What do we offer them?
A variety of products
and services –
some involve a
straightforward
customer transaction,
while others are more
complicated
12. What do customers want?
In a conventional customer relationship
they want goods or services as promised
in exchange for money
13. And when no
money is involved...
Some of our services are free – because
people want them and need them but
they will not pay for them
I'm talking about information!
14. Why do we provide free
services?
There is a value for us in providing free
information services – reputation, loyalty,
reinforcing our brand
Information services that are free to some
customers may allow us to develop
products that we can sell to other
customers
16. Information - online directories
Directory of
Australian
nonprofits &
charities
SAcommunity –
community
services
online
17. What is an online directory?
You know what the White and Yellow Pages
are
Nonprofit directory – includes only nonprofits
and charities with a basic level of detail
that allows people to contact them and to
understand what they do
19. Who are the customers?
Nonprofit and charity organisations
Government – seeking to regulate the
nonprofit sector
Businesses – they want to sell goods and
services to nonprofits
Donors and philanthropists
21. What's it for?
Helps people to find out about services from
government and community organisations that
can help them
Helps people to participate in community life
through membership or volunteering
22. Who are SAcommunity customers?
SA Government – our funding body
People who live in SA
Community service providers in SA
Our partner information providers – local
government & public libraries
Rosalie Day | Cert IV FLM
23. In summary
My organisation has a broad vision and mission
Our customer transactions and interactions are
diverse
We need to keep learning about and
understanding our customers so that we can
provide relevant services to them
Rosalie Day | Cert IV FLM
24. … and don't forget
Try to experience what it's like to be one of
your own customers – you might see
things in a new way
Rosalie Day | Cert IV FLM
Notas do Editor
Nonprofit capacity building Part of global network with partners in many countries In order to explain the breadth of our customer service and interactions I need to provide some background about what we do. It's not that easy to understand
A non-profit organisation can still make a profit, but this profit must be used to carry out its purposes and must not be distributed to owners, members or other individuals Examples: Red Cross, Rotary, Scouts, sporting clubs, churches, welfare organisations, foundations, RSPCA
Public funding and donations for nonprofits will soon dry up if organisations don't use them to further their stated purpose
The not-for-profit (NFP) sector is large and diverse, with around 600 000 organisations. – The ABS has identified 59 000 economically significant NFPs, contributing $43 billion to Australia's GDP, and 8 per cent of employment in 2006-07. – The NFP sector has grown strongly with average annual growth of 7.7 per cent from 1999-2000 to 2006-07.
When the customer transaction is not straightforward it can be hard to tell the difference between a customer and a stakeholder – that is someone who has an interest in what you do, someone who relies on you to do what you do, someone who can be affected by what you do
The nonprofits and charities that we consider to be our customers may or may not know about us. One of the things we want to do is build both a sense of community among nonprofits and a customer base for products and services that we can provide and generate income to support our organisation so that we can continue to operate
I will start by describing some simple customer services that involve an exchange of goods and services for money
Large companies give away some of their product as part of their corporate social responsibility efforts Customers register online and select products that they want Our customer service team help them to: Understand eligibility criteria Status of their order What they are entitled to Shipping Customers get confused because we are not software manufacturer or IT consultants – we only facilitate the donations. We cannot recommend products or help them with installation. Also they do not understand that donors set eligibility criteria for donated products and that not all non-profit are eligible to receive all products.
Technology, marketing, social media, governance, financial management, communications for non-profits Issues for us in providing this service are that many customers do not commit to coming until the last 1 or 2 weeks. By then we have already committed money to book speakers, pay travel costs, pay for conference organisers, venue, catering. We have no guarantee that we will get the customers we need to cover the costs let alone make a profit. So there's an imbalance between supply and demand. We want to get to the stage where we have so many people wanting to come that we have to close bookings before the conference opens.
Customers sign up online for events and pay to attend
No money changes hands, we are not sure exactly who receives or uses these materials and how useful they find them. People can subscribe for free to newsletters, download and use articles and blog posts. There is a level of interaction with customers as people can comment online on this content Why do we provide this kind of material? It's a way of building our organisation's profile, making people aware of what we do, linking them with other nonprofits and giving them the sense of being part of a nonprofit community. It is also introducing them to other services and products that they may be willing to pay for We are also setting out to place in the public arena information about matters that we think are important to nonprofits and to increase the flow of information so that it can reach people who are seeking it or who need it
Online directories are a big part of what we do. They are complex in relation to customer service. We need to obtain information from many individual contributors in order to aggregate it in a directory. That's a lot of relationships to manage What we are trying to do with our directories is to initiate and foster information flow by placing information that the public are entitled to in the public domain
People pay to be included in the White and Yellow Pages and they understand the value of this to them. Most nonprofits don't yet know about the Connecting Up Directory and the value proposition for them is not clear They pay nothing to be listed – but we want them to do the work – ie register and add or update your own details
In providing this directory we have up to 50 000 customers Not all of them understand or appreciate what we are doing: Eg: Please remove our organisation from this directory and please send a confirmation email to that effect. It is unhelpful having incomplete info out there and we do not wish to register. If we are not removed I will report this to ACFID, NSW Department of Fair Trading and Tim Costello whom you quote.
The np's benefit by being part of a national inventory and by being visible, especially for those that do not have their own website – they don't pay anything Government are not officially a customer yet, but they a\\have expressed interest. If they are going to regulate np's they need to know who and where they are – and if we already have that information we can save them a lot of work. They may be prepared to pay for our services Businesses – may want to sell a whole range of services to np's – eg office supplies, financial services, IT products, training, communications, transport etc. We can sell them access to a market Donors and philanthropists want to give money away – but only to organisations that will put it to good use. We can partner with them to increase the benefit to nonprofits
It's free – but that's because the State Government pays for it
What do the customers want? State Government – want us to acquit the funds according to the conditions and provide a service that makes them look good People who live in SA – want to be able to find community resources Community services providers – link with and refer clients to other services Partner information providers – want a technology platform that works for them and allows then to provide a localised information service. There are 30 of them!